Steve Little, former president of ERB Industries, was probably the highest-rated speaker at the recent Safety Week 2006, held in late June at the Chateau Elan Winery & Resort outside Atlanta. Attendees enjoyed his energy, safety industry experience, and “real-world†reminders. Now a senior consultant for Inc. Magazine and author of The 7 Irrefutable Laws of Small Business Growth, Little offered the safety industry audience these basic strategies for growth:
Rule 1: Establish and maintain a strong sense of purpose
Rule 2: Thoroughly understand the marketplace
Rule 3: Build an effective growth planning system
Rule 4: Develop customer-driven processes
Rule 5: Put the power of technology to work
Rule 6: Attract and keep the best and the brightest
Rule 7: See the future more clearly
Little made it clear to attendees that he has learned more about small-business growth since he got out of the practitioner role, immersed himself in the study of entrepreneurial opportunity, and made a career of speaking and consulting on the topic.
Little cautions entrepreneurs not to believe in Hollywood-style myths of empire-building, but to focus on careful planning, weighing the risks of a venture, and creating systems to attract the best and brightest people. As someone who led several fast-growth companies, he stresses the need to maintain a macro view of your market and the overall economy to be aware of coming opportunities and threats.
He urges small business owners to step back and look at the big picture if they want to grow. His premise is that opportunities and answers are not just within a company, but external as well.
Gaining superior market intelligence — an organization’s ability to recognize and adapt to macro changes in the marketplace — is something small businesses on the whole “are pretty lousy at,†Little wrote in a recent Web posting.
“We become so myopically focused on our day-to-day operations that we don’t take the time to regularly consider the important fundamental shifts taking place in the general or macro market.